Cambodia is notorious for child prostitution and sex trafficking. Once a great kingdom, Cambodia was devastated by the bloody rule of the Khmer Rouge who killed an estimated 1.5 million of its citizens. Left behind were thousands of orphans. These children became easy prey for traffickers who sold them internationally or kept them imprisoned in the brothels of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, setting in motion a vicious cycle that has been perpetuated to this day. It is estimated that as many as one third of sex workers in Cambodia are children.

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Vietnamese live on the waterways of Cambodia. Many had fled to Cambodia after the fall of Saigon. Others have been there for generations. Impoverished and ostracized, this Vietnamese population is very vulnerable and their children are especially at risk. Poverty, combined with a thriving child sex industry in Cambodia, has resulted in over seventy percent of Cambodia's Vietnamese girls being sold into slavery.

These are the children that Pastor Thach and his wife serve.This dear couple runs the Rau Muong (water spinach) school perched above the Mekong River near Phnom Penh. The education (and therefore opportunity) received by the children there may be the only thing standing in the way of a life of sexual servitude. Pastor Thach and his wife also provide residential care for four former orphaned and abandoned children who had nowhere else to go except the brothels. World Orphans desires to provide Pastor Thach's church with just $176 per month to help care for these precious children as the initial step towards a greater involvement.

CAMBODIA COUNTRY PROFILE:

Number of Single Orphans* (one parent lost): 660,000

Number of Double Orphans* (both parents lost): 55,000

*not including abandoned, sold or trafficked children

Population: 14,494,293

Average Income: $300 per person

NETWORK PARTNER:

CONTRIBUTIONS:

To give to this project please view our giving options (link below) and write "Lunkon Themi" in the online memo field or on the memo line of your check: